FAA spares Hawthorne, Palmdale air traffic control towers; Lancaster, Pacoima towers to close

The Federal Aviation Administration will close 149 air traffic control towers operated by government contractors on April 7, including several in Southern California, but the agency spared some facilities that had been slated for possible closure.

Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, General William J. Fox Airfield in Lancaster and Whiteman Airport in Pacoima will lose their air traffic controllers, which are provided by a third-party contractor.

Towers at Hawthorne Municipal Airport and Palmdale Regional Airport, which also use controllers under contract with the FAA rather than government employees, will stay open.

In this round of cuts, the FAA will not close any towers staffed by its workers. That means facilities at Brackett Field in La Verne and at El Monte Airport, both of which were considered threatened, will remain open. However, they could be at risk if there is another round of cuts.

FAA officials had warned the cuts would be coming for more than a month, saying Congress was requiring them to cut roughly $600 million from their budget. The cuts are required by sequestration, the $85 billion reduction in government spending mandated by Congress. The process began March 1.

Reactions on Friday were mixed, with officials at airports not experiencing closures expressing satisfaction, while those at affected airports saying they would do their best to continue to operate normally. At smaller airports, airplanes do not necessarily require controller assistance to land and take off, though the process tends to be less efficient without controllers. None of the airports affected by the cuts handles commercial flights.

"The concern is that the air traffic control towers provide an extra set of eyes on air traffic over these densely populated areas," said Bob Spencer, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, operator of airports in Lancaster, Pacoima, El Monte and La Verne. "When you remove this extra set of eyes, it has a major affect on safety. "

At nonstaffed airports, Spencer said, pilots will follow a system in which they verbally announce their intentions to other pilots and fly standard flight patterns. Pilots already are familiar with the system, as many airports are already not staffed.

"We fly into many airports where the tower is closed," said Levi Stockton, owner of Advanced Air, a charter service based at Hawthorne's airport. "You have to learn the area and understand the operations. It will be interesting to see. People are used to things one way, and when things change, there will be a learning curve. "

But not every airport is the same. Hawthorne officials were adamant that their airport should keep its controlled tower staffed because of its proximity to Los Angeles International Airport. It will be one of only 24 contracted control towers remaining open nationwide, according to the FAA.

"We're within three miles of LAX, so it makes a huge difference," Stockton said. "Anyone trying to operate in and out of here would have had an extremely hard time. "

At Brackett Field in La Verne, officials were similarly pleased that the control tower will remain open. Mount San Antonio College uses the airport to educate prospective controllers.

"We have a nationally recognized aeronautics program, specifically geared toward training air traffic controllers, so it's critical we have an air tower for our students to train," college spokeswoman Jill Dolan said. "Classroom time is important but that time in the tower is critical. "

Still, a second round of cuts remains a possibility, and they could affect FAA-operated towers like LaVerne and El Monte. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said no decisions have been made on staffing at FAA-operated control towers.